


we call this home

by andfollowthesun



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Derek "Nursey" Nurse is Unchill, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, absolutely no knowledge of how lobster fishing works, mermaid!nursey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-06 22:58:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12827904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andfollowthesun/pseuds/andfollowthesun
Summary: Will first sees him the week before he leaves for Samwell.It shouldn’t be surprising, not anymore. He’s been seeing magical creatures out at sea ever since he was old enough to go out on the boat by himself.Mermaids though, were a new one.





	we call this home

**Author's Note:**

> this is both my first fic (ever!) and the longest complete thing i've ever written. partially inspired by [this art](http://wingedwarbler.tumblr.com/post/166486290789/just-a-lobster-fisherman-and-a-merman) by wingedwarbler on tumblr. 
> 
> hope u enjoy!!! <3

Will first sees him the week before he leaves for Samwell.

 

It shouldn’t be surprising, not anymore. He’s been seeing magical creatures out at sea ever since he was old enough to go out on the boat by himself, and no matter how much insisting, or how many times he tries to show somebody else, the water always stays stubbornly calm and clear unless he’s the only one there. He’s long since given up trying to convince his family that no, he wasn’t just imagining things. From kelpies to afanc to hippocampi to kappa, he’s seen most magical creatures that have even the slightest affiliation with water. Even helped some out here and there.

 

Mermaids though, were a new one.

 

+++++

 

The sighting was so fleeting that if Will was looking in the wrong direction, he would’ve missed it. It was a slow day, and even though the sun beat down on his back, his fingers were stiff and numb from hauling traps all day. He could feel the beginnings of his skin peeling from sunburn on his neck, and straightened up to stretch with a groan.

 

When he opened his eyes return to his task, he found a pair of eyes staring back at him from the water.

 

Neither of them moved for a second, staring at each other, before Will’s instincts kicked in. He yelled “hold on!” and grabbed the life buoy from the bottom of the boat to throw out onto the water. It landed right next to the person, but instead of grabbing on, he glanced at the float like it was offending him, and then looked at Will once more before disappearing under the waves. Will’s yell died in his throat when he saw the tail flip up and out of the water where the head had just been, before it too, disappeared.

 

Will reeled the buoy back in without really processing his actions, and stared out into the now clear sea.

 

 _Green,_ he thought. _His eyes were green._

 

+++++

 

Will doesn’t see him the summer between his freshman and sophomore year, but he does the summer after that. With a year away from the ocean, and almost two since he saw those green eyes, he’d already half convinced himself that this time, it really was just a figment of his imagination. He’d brought it up once, with Chowder, who’d looked at him with the deadpan stare Ransom called _putting up with white people shit_. And okay, fair, it had been just a glance, a passing second. It could’ve just been heatstroke. He could’ve just been tired.

 

Now, he knows he’s not imagining it.

 

“The fucking mermaid,” he announces as he walks into his sister’s room. “keeps messing with my boat.”

 

Matilda barely glances up from where she’s reading on her bed. “Your boat isn’t a boat, it’s a glorified twenty year old dinghy. And I thought you said he wasn’t real.”

 

Will scowls. “Well yeah, I thought so, but obviously not, because he’s messing with my _boat_. Not dinghy.” he stresses.

 

She does look at him now, and raises her eyebrows. Will suddenly feels like a petulant child, and for lack of a better thing to do, throws himself next to her on the bed. At eighteen, and headed to UMaine in the fall, she’s far more unflappable than Will thinks he will ever be. And although he would never tell her, he’s come to confide in her in a lot of things that he wouldn’t dare tell anybody else.

 

Like his knack for attracting magical fucking creatures, for example.

 

“Okay,” Matilda drags out the word, “Then tell him to stop.”

 

Will scoffs at the ceiling. “You can’t just ‘tell him to stop’,” he mimics. “You can’t reason with these creatures.”

 

Her eyebrows, if possible, raise even higher. “Have you tried?”

 

Will crosses his arms. “Well… no.” he admits.

 

She looks back down at her book. “That’ll be $55 dollars for this session, come back tomorrow if you have any unexpected symptoms.”

 

“Hilarious.” Will throws a blanket at her head, ignoring her indignant “hey!”. When she re-emerges though, she’s smirking at him in a way that makes Will squint at her. “What?”

 

“He’s cute, isn’t he?”

 

Will splutters. “What? No! It’s a _mermaid_.”

 

Matilda shrugs before tossing the blanket onto the nearby desk chair. “If you say so. Don’t come in here when realise your massive gay crush on him.”

 

“You are terrible and I hate you.”

 

“Aw, Billy, I didn’t know you cared!” She dog-ears her page before setting it aside, ignoring Will’s grimace at her careless nonchalance with books. “What’s he doing that’s so annoying anyway?”

 

He sits up sideways on her bed and leans against the wall, thinking over the last few days. “I keep feeling somebody flicking water at me when my back is turned, and the boat keeps rocking even though there’s no wind, and my nets keep coming up all tangled.” He looks down at his hands, calloused and rough from two weeks out on the boat after almost a year off. “And I swear I can see green out of the corner of my eye, but when I look there’s nothing there.”

 

His frustration simmers under his skin in a way that he hadn’t felt for a long time, not since his first semester at Samwell. It’s been eighteen months since then, and a hell of a learning curve for Will on how to manage his own anger. He knew that he was better at it now, but the damn mermaid keeps throwing him off balance.

 

“Just talk to him or something. Mermaids are intelligent beings, aren’t they? I’m sure he’ll understand reason.” Matilda leans over and pokes him in the arm. “Will? Are you listening?”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Talk to him.” He blows out a frustrated breath. “Can’t be any worse than the squid last summer.”

 

Matilda cackles, bouncing on her bed. “I’d forgotten about that. Tell me again.”

 

Will groans, but can’t help but smile. They’ve never been overly sappy with one another, but she knew how to needle him into doing something, and they’ve always had each other’s backs. This was just like all the other times he’s run to her with magical creature related problems, and they didn’t even need to do extensive research in dusty, brittle books or obscure corners of the internet. No rituals or spells, no wrangling with a squid at midnight. Just making conversation with a mermaid, like talking to a normal person. How hard can it be?

 

+++++

 

Turns out, it’s really hard to make conversation with the mermaid. No matter how much Will calls out to him, cautiously at first, and then with increasing levels of frustration, he doesn’t emerge from the water. It’s not until the third day the thought occurs that the mermaid might not be able to hear him from underwater. This annoys Will even more, and he feels equal parts embarrassed and irritated at his slow comprehension.

 

In the end, he doesn’t have to try and make conversation with the mermaid. Because the mermaid makes conversation with him first.

 

“Hello.” Will doesn’t jump from surprise, but it’s a close thing. He turns around slowly to see a pair of green eyes watching him.

 

“You can talk.” It’s not really a question, but Will’s voice squeaks up embarrassingly at the end.

 

The mermaid looks vaguely amused. “Of course I can talk.” He doesn’t seem inclined to say anything else, and instead folds his arms on the edge of the boat and rests his chin on top. There are scales lining his forearms and shoulders, the same green as his eyes. He doesn’t seem too bothered by Will’s gormless expression, and after a minute or two, he adds, “I’m Derek, by the way.”

 

His voice is deep, and Will already knows that he is so, so fucked. “Derek.”

 

“Yep.” Derek nods, and there’s an awkward pause before Will blurts out, “Why do you keep messing with my boat?”

 

Derek shrugs. “I was curious, and you’re cute.”

 

Will feels himself go red, and Derek eyes him interestedly for a moment before flicking over to the objects in the boat.

 

“What’s all that?”

 

The question jolts Will out of his slack-jawed stupor, and he turns back around to retie the knot he had been in the middle of. “It’s my fishing stuff.”

 

“What do you use it for? To fish?”

 

Will snorts. “No, to run a marathon. Yes, to fish.”

 

Derek’s quiet for a moment, and then: “What’s a marathon? And why do you fish?”

 

“God, are all mermaids always so full of questions?”

 

Derek laughs, and Will hates himself for thinking how nice his laugh sounds.

 

“Chill, man. I’m just asking.”

 

Will grips the rope a little tighter. He feels all the irritation from the past few days bubbling at the base of his spine, and breathes in slowly, thinking, _Okay. Take inventory. The mermaid is good looking. The mermaid is absolutely infuriating. The mermaid is messing with your boat and you need to ask him nicely to stop._

 

Will consciously releases his fingers around the rope, and breathes out through his nose. “Look man, I don’t know what your deal is but I have a job to do. Could you please stop playing tricks on me or whatever?”

 

Derek blinks slowly at him, and Will only has time to think his eyelashes are so long before he nods briefly, and disappears under the waves.

 

 _Huh._ Will thinks, staring at the spot where there had just been a fucking mermaid. _That’s never worked before._ He makes a mental note to buy Matilda a cup of her horrendously overpriced and sickeningly sweet monster of a drink on the way home. And if he sticks his tongue out at her when she accepts the cup with a smug smile and a mouthed “I told you so.”, well, nobody else has to know.

 

+++++

 

Of course, it’s never quite as easy as that.

 

Derek starts coming by every day. After the first meeting, he keeps his distance, lurking a couple metres out from the boat. Will carefully doesn’t take his eyes off his hands as he changes and sets the traps, but he knows that the mermaid is out there. He doesn’t play any tricks on the boat, and stays out of Will’s way, which is really all the he asked for.

 

This goes on for another five days before Will breaks. He looks out across the water and sighs, unwinding the buoy from the bottom of the boat and tossing it at the dark shape. It hits the waves with a satisfying smack, and when Derek’s face pops out of the water a second later, full of indignance, Will cracks a smile.

 

“If you’re gonna keep hanging around, you might as well hang around over here.”

 

Derek doesn’t move at first, and for a horrible moment Will thinks he’s misjudged the whole situation, the loitering, the offhand comments during their first interaction.

 

Then, faster than Will can comprehend, the buoy’s being tossed back to land at his feet, and Derek’s leaning over the edge of the boat with a sheepish smile.

 

More than that, he’s got a lobster in his hand.

 

“You have a lobster.” Will says, before inwardly groaning. Very observant.

 

If Derek notices, he doesn’t call Will out on it. Instead, his smile widens. “I noticed you seem to like them. So I brought you one.”

 

“Oh. Thanks.” Will takes it from him and carefully tapes shut its claws before putting it in the cage with the rest of his catch, more gently than he’s probably ever handled a lobster in his life.

 

“I never caught your name.”

 

“Oh. It’s…” _Dex,_ he wants to say. That’s how he would introduce himself to anybody his age, to anybody even half as good looking as Derek. That’s been his name for the last two years where he’s felt most free. But somehow, _Dex_ doesn’t feel quite right here, in his uncle’s battered boat and the quiet town on the shoreline.

 

“Will.” He settles on finally.

 

“Will.” Derek repeats, and if possible, he smiles even wider. “It’s very nice to meet you.” He starts pulling himself out of the water and into the boat.

 

“It’s alright, you don’t have to….” Will trails off as he watches the water run down Derek’s body, his muscles clenching under miles of dark skin. At his hips, where one’s happy trail would begin, there’s a smattering of green scales that lead to his tail. And a fin on his lower back, so translucent that the summer sun practically glows through the soft green. Derek remains oblivious to Will’s ogling as he settles himself at the opposite end of the boat to the lobster crates, facing Will, with his tail still half swishing in the water.

 

For a long moment, they sit there, just staring at each other, both unsure of where to start. Will opens his mouth, questions poised on the tip of his tongue.

  
_  
How fast can you swim?_

 

_Where do you live?_

 

_What do mermaids do?_

 

_What’s it like at the bottom of the sea?_

 

_Are all mermaids this pretty or is it just you?_

  
  
“Where were you last summer?” Will asks.

 

Derek seems surprised by the question, and Will thinks, _you and me both_. “Oh, I was training.”

 

“Training?”

 

“Yes. When a mermaid comes of age, they serve an apprenticeship for a year, and I was doing mine.”

 

“Oh.” Will thinks this over. It makes sense, he supposes. If humans had university and school and internships, then it would only make sense that mermaids would too. “What are you apprenticed in?”

 

“Composition and words-working.”

 

“So… English?”

 

Derek cocks his head, looking at Will curiously. “What’s English?”

 

Will stares at him for a moment, before gesturing between the two of them. “It’s what we’re speaking right now, you know, the language.”

 

“Ah.” Derek leans forward, like he’s drinking in the new information. “You too have different dialects? I only know this human tongue.”

 

“I guess you could say that.” Will says, wincing. He hadn’t even thought about how the mermaids might have their own languages, and how it was possible that Derek could speak English. It made sense, if his only contact with humans was lurking near the Maine fishermen, like he’d done with Will. Will, who had promptly dropped all language classes once they weren’t mandatory in high school, couldn’t help but feel quietly impressed. _How many non-human languages does he know? How easily could he pick up another?_

 

“I like your hair, Will. It’s the colour of the sunset.”

 

Will feels a flush work its way up his neck at the sudden change of subject, and he squirms under Derek’s gaze, who adds, unnecessarily, “Your skin, too, is the colour of sunset.”

 

“Er. Thanks.” Will stutters out, feeling horribly hot under his collar, despite the numb coldness in his fingers from hauling crates in and out of the water all day.

 

They lapse back into silence, and Will tries to get his face to cool down, while also sorting out the tangle of questions in his head. Derek seems to sense that he wants to say something, and he stays silent with a patient expression on his face. This only irritates Will more, because of course even a fucking mythical sea creature has better control over his emotions than Will does.

 

“What are you doing here anyway?” he asks, probably more harshly than he should.

Derek raises his eyebrows in a way that reminds Will far too much of Matilda, all smooth flirt gone from his expression. “The better question is what are you doing here. The sea is my home. Not yours.”

 

Will bites back his instinctive response to that, because yeah, Derek is technically right. The sea is home to lots of creatures, and Will isn’t one of them. But he’d grown up on the shore, with the smell of salt in the air and surrounded by water. The sea isn’t his home, but it wasn’t just another place he passed through either.

 

“I mean here as in this boat.” he says instead. “Don’t you have better things to do?” Will pauses, mulling it over. “What do you guys do anyway?”

 

Derek still looks defensive and wary, but he answers Will’s questions willingly enough. “It’s summer. No one wants to do anything on the hottest days of the year, even if there are better things to do.” He flicks his tail in the water, sending a few droplets into the boat. Will carefully ignores the way the new water glistens on Derek’s skin.

 

“As for your other question,” Derek continues, “We do the same things as humans. Enjoy the water. Read. Cook. Enjoy each other’s company.” He smirks at Will. “There are a lot of things for us to do.”

 

“Wait. Can you do…” Will wiggles his fingers meaningfully, and Derek’s face slides from cocky arrogance into something closer to laughter.

 

“Can I do?”

 

“You know… Stuff.” Will knows he sounds like an idiot, but determinedly pushes on. “Magical stuff.”

 

“Magical stuff.” Derek repeats, a smile tugging at his lips.

 

“Yeah. Like moving things without touching them, or reading minds or–- dude, stop laughing at me.”

 

Derek only laughs more delightedly, pulling a reluctant smile from Will as well.

 

“I apologise, and no, sadly we cannot do ‘magical stuff’. We’re the stuff of mortal beings too.”

 

“Right.” Will looks pointedly down at Derek’s tail, all its gleaming, emerald scales. He wants to run his hand over it, but it seems rude to ask.

 

“The tide pulls closer to the sea.” Will’s so busy looking at Derek’s tail that he doesn’t realise Derek’s spoken until the tail suddenly moves, and then Will’s looking at Derek’s upper body in the water, when he had been lounging on the boat across from him a second ago. “I’ll see you later, Will.”

 

Will barely has time to return a “bye” before Derek dives, leaving only a splash of water, and ripples on the otherwise calm sea marking that he was ever there.

 

So. That happened. He talked to an actual sea creature. The first one that could speak, and definitely the first one that could understand reason. And he’s not bad looking either, his subconscious adds. Will shakes his head, and winds the anchor up, before steering the boat towards the shore.

 

 _Not today,_ he thinks. _Not today._

 

+++++

 

The next day is Sunday, and Will’s day off, so when he opens his eyes at 6AM and can’t go back to sleep, he goes for a run and then joins his mother on her weekly trip to the farmers’ market. This leads to him holding all six canvas bags full of groceries and homemade items while his mother catches up with every single storeowner on their respective weeks, and promising three of his mother’s friends whom they bump into to take a look at a leaky sink or creaky door or wobbly table or all three, and then following up with all those promises.

 

It means that come Monday morning, he’s more than a little tired. On top of all that, his muscles are aching even though he’s an NCAA Division One athlete, and it’s been three weeks of hauling crates on the boat. It’s 7AM and still dark, and Will’s more than a little annoyed that he let his stamina slip so quickly since the end of the hockey season. He’s in the middle of hauling a trap into the boat when he hears from behind him, “You weren’t here yesterday.”

 

He yelps and drops the trap back into the water. He lets out a frustrated groan, slumping against the side of the boat, and bites out “What do you want Derek?”

 

There’s a pause, before Derek repeats quietly, “You weren’t here yesterday.”

 

Will turns to look at him, and the acrid response at the back of his throat fades away when he takes in Derek’s expression. His face is carefully blank, none of the bright animation Will saw in their past encounters. He swallows, and offers weakly, “It was my day off.”

 

“Right.” Derek looks conflicted for a moment before visible steeling himself, and bringing his hand over the side of the boat to offer a lobster to Will.

 

Will stares his outstretched hand, and slowly moves to tape the lobster’s claws, taking it and putting it into the currently empty crate. “Thanks.” he says lamely.

 

“No problem.” Derek floats awkwardly in the water, and Will makes an aborted gesture to the spot Derek occupied last time. “Do you wanna-–”

 

“Sure.” Derek’s already at the other end of the boat by the time Will’s half finished his question, and only then seems to remember the carefully cool façade he was maintaining. “Sounds chill.” he adds nonchalantly, pulling himself onboard.

 

Will busies himself with lifting the dropped trap up again, transferring the lobsters into the crates, and then resetting the trap. He does this two more times, and had resigned himself to a couple of hours finishing his job while being stared in silence at by a mermaid, when Derek speaks.

 

“I didn’t get to ask you any questions last time.”

 

“Oh.” Will frowns, setting the last trap, and then letting it sink back overboard. He watches the dark shape disappear underwater, then sits back, facing Derek. “Alright then. Fire away.”

 

Derek leans forward, all eagerness now, previous coldness gone. “What’s the glowing rectangle all humans have? What are those massive machines that put themselves onto the ground? What’s it like on top of a mountain? What kind of animals are there on land? Have you ever been to a desert? What’s it like? How many–-”

 

“Whoa, slow down there.” Will holds his hands up, and tries to get his brain to catch up with the sudden speed at which Derek asked those questions. Derek clamps his mouth shut, and ducks his head, clearly embarrassed that he got carried away.

 

“Sorry, I just–-”

 

“No, it’s fine, just give me a sec.” Will tries to remember what questions Derek had rattled off. “Um, mountains are nice. Peaceful. Beautiful views. I’ve never been to a desert, but I hear it’s very windy and very hot.” Will thinks of the pictures Lardo showed him of her semester abroad in her sophomore year. “And that the sand is a pain in the ass.”

 

“What about the rectangles?” Derek prompts.

 

Will frowns. “Rectangles?”

 

“Yeah, about this big.” Derek draws a shape in the air about the size of his hand. “They glow. You can touch the glowing part and the pictures move about.”

 

“Oh, phones.” Will pulls his phone out of his pocket and unlocks the screen. “You can use it to do all sorts of things. Take photos, watch videos, call or message people.”

 

Will realises that those words might not mean anything to Derek, and he looks up to see him transfixed on the phone, eyes wide. He can practically see the questions about the device in running through Derek’s brain, and already waiting in his mouth, his very nice mouth-– nope, not going there, no tangents right now, thank you very much.

 

He asks, “Any other questions?”

 

Derek launches into another spiel, far too quickly for Will to understand. The sun has only just cleared the horizon, so Will puts aside his fishing nets and settles back, trying to answer each one as best as he can. He’s got time.

 

+++++

 

And that’s how it goes for the next three weeks. Will goes out on the boat in the mornings, works until he can see Derek waiting in the distance. Throws the buoy out and pretends that Derek’s expression of _oh fancy seeing you here what a coincidence that I’m here too_ is somewhat believable, and they spend the rest of the day tossing jibes and questions about their lives back and forth at each other. It’s more enjoyable than Will would expect. Once he realises that Derek can be pretty funny at times, and also kind of an asshole at others, the last of the awkwardness fades in between them, and he finds himself pulling into the docks later and later every day.

 

The first week, Derek unfailingly brings a lobster for Will every day, who then always gently adds it to his catch. The second week, after Will talked about the crystal caves his family had explored on a vacation once, Derek brings smooth rocks in odd, gleaming colours. Will rolls his eyes at him, but pockets them, and pretty soon there’s a rainbow of coloured rocks lining Will’s bedroom windowsill.

 

However, Will doesn’t realise how truly and completely fucked he is until one lazy afternoon, he asks Derek what his home looks like, and Derek excitedly rambles for an hour about the moss and coral and odd bits and bobs that had fallen into the sea. Will watches him wave his arms around and splash his tail in the water and his stupidly white and straight teeth and his stupidly full lips and stupidly green eyes, and vaguely in the background he can hear the Kill Bill sirens. When he comes home from the docks that evening, he heads straight for his sister’s room.

 

“Matilda.” He walks into her room and doesn’t wait for the door close behind him before proceeding to lie face down on the floor.

 

“I told you so.” she says absentmindedly, still absorbed with whatever’s on her computer screen.

 

“I haven’t even said anything yet.” Will’s words are muffled by the floor.

 

“I was there when you had your big gay crisis over Johnny Mackenzie. I know what your strange combination of pining and moping looks like.”

 

“Stop roasting me and help me decide what to do.”

 

Will hears her swivel around in her chair, and after a beat of silence, he drags his face off the ground to look at her. She has a sufferingly fond look on her face, and Will suddenly remembers their mother offhandedly mentioning in one of his weekly calls home that she had gotten and broken up with her first boyfriend over the span of two weeks last semester. Looking at his sister now, he feels sorry that he wasn’t there for her then.

 

“Okay, with all my expertise of college–-”

 

“You’re not even a freshman, Tils, I’ve been at college two years longer than you.”

 

“And what have you learnt? Absolutely zilch. So keep quiet and let me tell you what to do.”

 

Will opens his mouth, but at her sharp look, closes it again.

 

“You guys are going to _talk it out_ like _adults_. I know, it’s an absolutely radical approach.”

 

“I’m pretty sure that level of sarcasm is lethal.” Will mutters, but he sees the truth in her words. He’d already known that was what she was going to say, but it wasn’t it any easier to actually hear her say it. The only problem was how could he execute her advice.

 

He’s so deep in his thoughts that he doesn’t notice the silence ticking past, so he startles a little when Matilda jabs the back of his thigh with her foot. He looks at her, and her skeptical expression melts into one of sheer disbelief.

 

“Oh man,” she says. “You got it bad.”

 

“Shut up.” He mumbles.

 

“No, c’mon, spill. There’s more.” The jabs become more pointed and insistent. “Out with it. C’mon Billy, or do I need to bring back that one photo on Facebook from 2010…”

 

“Okay, okay!” Will rolls over onto his back and scrubs a hand over his face. “Maybe it’s easier if I just show you.” He gets to his feet and heads across the hall into his own room. When he turns back around, she’s right behind him, and her eyebrows have climbed so high on her forehead he swears they’re going to fly off at any moment.

 

When he tells her this, she waves his comments away impatiently and gestures around. “Well?”

 

Wordlessly, he points at the windowsill, and Matilda looks over, her expression turning from disbelief to absolute glee. “Oh my god.”

 

She makes her way over, picking up an amber coloured stone and squinting at it. A grin spreads across her face, and Will braces himself. “Oh my god. He’s wooing you.”

 

“I know!” he whines. “But what do I do about it?

 

Matilda’s still talking in complete delight. “Billy, you’re being wooed. Incredible.” She holds the stone up to the light, and turns it around. “Absolutely incredible.”

 

“Matildaaaaaa.”

 

She finally tears her attention away from the rock and holds out her hands in a _what?_ manner. “Like I said. Communication. It’s very important, Will.”

 

“But what about,” he lowers his voice, “the other thing?”

 

She sighs, all sarcasm dropping away, and puts the rock back on the windowsill. “I don’t know.”

 

The answer is so unexpected that Will is shocked into silence. She looks at him sideways, before releasing a frustrated breath. “You obviously really like him. And he,” she says, gesturing to the rocks, neatly lined up in a row, “obviously really likes you.”

 

“But there’s just the small problem that we’re not even the same species?”

 

Matilda shrugs, and sits down on his bed. “Talk to him. He’s going to have an opinion too. Ask him what he thinks.”

 

Will sits down heavily next to her, and rubs at his eyes. He suddenly feels very, very tired.

 

“Will?”

 

He looks up, and for all her bravado, he can see the worry in her face, and the unspoken question.

 

He smiles wearily at her, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, Tils. I’m fine.”

 

She purses her lips, clearly doubtful, but doesn’t say anything else. Will breathes a sigh of relief, grateful that she let the topic drop, and stands up, stretching his arms over his head. “I think I’m gonna go for a run.”

 

Matilda gets to her feet and heads back into her room. “Be back before dinner. You’re setting the table tonight.” she reminds him.

 

“Yeah, yeah.” He closes the door behind her, and changes quickly into his running shorts and an old t-shirt, grabbing his sneakers. When he heads out into the hallway, he hesitates outside Matilda’s still open door. Eventually, she looks up.

 

“What?”

 

“Just… thanks, Tils.”

 

She looks at him searchingly, before turning back at her laptop screen. “Anytime. Now get your ugly mug outta my room.” She’s smiling as she says it though, and as Will retreats down the hallway, – “I’m going, I’m going” – so is he.

 

+++++

 

The run hadn’t helped him decide what to do, but it had helped to clear his mind. The next day, when Derek shows up with a smile and another rock in his hand – blue this time – Will can’t stop himself from blurting out, “Are you courting me?”

 

Derek’s smile freezes, and he recoils so abruptly that he drops the rock back into the water, which then results in him immediately diving back down to retrieve it. And in doing so, flicking a wave of salt water straight into Will’s face.

 

When he resurfaces triumphantly holding up the rock in one hand, Will is still spluttering and trying to wipe the water out of his eyes.

 

“Oh shit, sorry.” Derek hoists himself into the boat next to Will, bringing in another sluice of salt water with him, and makes to help dry Will off, before clearly realising the flaws in that plan and retreating. His hands hover in the air for a moment, and Will bats them away.

 

“’m fine.” He blinks open his eyes and swipes his wet hair off his forehead.

 

“Are you sure? I’m really sorry, I didn’t–-”

 

“Derek, stop.” Will grabs his hands and presses them down. Derek goes still under his touch, and Will realises belatedly that they’re now conveniently holding hands.

 

“You didn’t answer the question.” he says.

 

Derek avoids his eyes, but makes no move to pull his hands free from Will’s. “Uh… yes?”

 

“Yes?” Will prompts. “Yes, I didn’t answer the question, or yes, I am courting you?”

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Derek’s tail twitching. “Uh, well…” His hands are clenched in fists, and Will tries to get him to relax by running his fingers over his wrists, even though he can feel his own heart basically beating through his skin. A full body shiver goes through Derek, from head to tail and he turns his hand over, still in Will’s grasp, and opens his palm. Will can feel the rock’s ridges against his fingers, and when he picks it up, he realises it’s the perfect match for the colour of the sea.

 

“It’s a piece of Camouflage.” Derek tentatively offers. “They absorb whatever colour they’re most exposed to, so they can be used as a reminder of certain places.” He gestures at the sea around them with one hand, before anxiously running his palms over the scales on his forearms.

 

Will looks at the rock in his hand. Something that Derek got for him, specifically, as a reminder of this place. As a reminder of this sea, the common ground they both shared.

 

“Oh fuck it.” Will leans forwards and kisses him.

 

It’s not a spectacularly good kiss, by any standards. But Derek’s lips are smooth and soft, and he tastes like salt water. His arms come up to grip Will's biceps, and he hums into the kiss.

 

Derek pulls away with a dopey grin on his face, and Will can’t help but smile back, pulling him in to meet his lips again. Derek goes willingly, and Will spares a second to think, incredulously, _I’m kissing a mermaid,_ before it’s replaced by a giddy, _I’m kissing Derek._

 

Will’s watch beeps, startling the both of them enough to spring apart. There’s an instant of silence, before Derek exhales out a laugh, pressing his forehead to Will’s shoulder. Will’s arms come up to wrap around Derek’s back, and he glances at his wrist, swearing when he catches sight of the time.

 

“I have to go.” He holds Derek for a moment longer before letting go, and turning to start pulling up the anchor into the boat. Behind him, he hears the telltale splash of Derek slipping back into the water.

 

“You’ll be back tomorrow right?”

 

Will hesitates. It’s Sunday tomorrow, and he’d promised his dad that he’d help out at the garage. He looks at Derek, whose face is both uncertain and hopeful, and makes a decision.

 

“I’ll be here.”

 

+++++

 

Although his mom had raised her eyebrows when he said he was going out on the boat today, she’d said nothing, only putting together a Tupperware of leftovers from dinner for him to take out with him. Matilda, on the other hand, had poked him in the ribs as they passed each other in the living room, and wriggled her eyebrows suggestively, before wandering up the stairs humming a tune that sounded suspiciously like Part of Your World. He rolled her eyes at her, and carefully didn’t think about how that movie ended, and the hope it presented for Derek and himself. Although he’d barely slept the previous night, tossing and turning and thinking of Derek and that kiss, he was wide awake and full of nervous energy.

 

His dad had agreed surprisingly easily for Will to only help out for half the day instead of the whole day like he’d said before, and Will couldn’t get out onto the water fast enough. He drops the anchor down at his usual spot and scans the water anxiously, looking for the dark shape just beneath the surface.

 

He doesn’t have to wait long. After a couple of minutes, Derek’s head pops up and Will doesn’t wait for him to hoist himself onto the boat, instead leaning over the side and pulling him for a kiss. Derek makes a surprised noise, but sighs into the kiss.

 

When Will’s ribs start hurting from being pressed into the side of the boat, he pulls away and sits back, smiling at Derek. “Hi.”

 

Derek smiles back. “Hi.” He holds out his hand to Will, and Will sees that today’s rock is pale pink, and in the shape of a wonky heart.

 

A warm feeling spreads through Will, and he takes the rock from Derek, putting it in his pocket before reaching out a hand to help him into the boat. Once they’re side by side, Will puts his hand on Derek’s cheek, and he turns his face into it, leaning into the touch.

 

“Hi.” he whispers again.

 

Will laughs breathily, and whispers back, “Hi.”

 

“We’re okay, right?”

 

“Yeah.” Will ducks his head to press a kiss against Derek’s forehead. “More than okay.”

 

+++++

 

Nothing changes, really. Will still goes out on the boat in the mornings, and works until he can see Derek waiting in the distance. Except now Derek greets him with a gift and a kiss, and they spend the rest of the day talking while pressed together.

 

They carefully avoid some topics. The days left before Will goes back to Samwell are dwindling fast. Samwell, four hours’ drive from Maine, three hours’ drive from any kind of open water at all. Will distracts himself by asking Derek so many questions that sometimes his head spins. If Derek notices his sudden increase in curiosity, he doesn’t call him out on it. Sometimes, Will wonders if Derek’s doing the same with all the questions he volleys back.

 

“Am I constantly dumping lobster traps onto your underwater city or something?”

 

“Nah. The city’s out that way.” Derek flicks his tail in the direction of the open sea. “You’re dumping lobster traps into the junkyards where nobody lives.”

 

“That’s good, I guess.”

 

Derek makes noncommittal noise, instead focusing on braiding a beautiful and complicated knot with some of Will’s spare rope. Will knows that he should bask in the glow of the sun and just relax, but he can’t quite stop himself from pressing the matter.

 

“Don’t you… not like it?”

 

“Not like what?”

 

“This.” Will gestures vaguely at the crate of lobsters in the corner of his boat, ready to be unloaded and sent to the market at the end of the day. “Aren’t they your friends or something so you hate that we eat them?”

 

Derek stares at him for a moment before bursting into giggles.

 

“Well alright,” Will says grumpily, turning away.

 

“No, no,” Derek says, putting aside his rope and reaching for him. Will goes easily enough, leaning into his side.

 

“It’s the same way you are with land animals, is it not? I think there are some you do not eat?”

 

Will frowns, then nods. “Yeah… I mean different people eat and don’t eat different ones, but I guess so?”

 

“We’re the same. Generally, we don’t eat koi, dolphins, hippocampi, and sharks, but there are some mermaids that do.” Derek shrugs.

 

“Wow.” They lapse back into silence, staring out at the water. Derek’s weight grows heavier and heavier on Will’s side, and Will shifts so that he’s leaning fully on his chest, and he breaks the quiet again. “What’s your favourite?”

 

“Mmmmm?” Derek mumbles, somewhat sleepily. Will looks at his watch and realises with shock that they’ve already spent most of the day out on the water.

 

“Your favourite food.”

 

Derek yawns. “I don’t eat the meat of the sea, only the plants. Probably kelp popsicles. They’re really good in the summer.”

 

Will snorts. “My boyfriend is a fucking vegetarian. Impossible.”

 

“Your boyfriend is a fucking mermaid and that I eat plants is what’s impossible?” Derek laughs.

 

“You’re impossible.” Will says in a childish voice, but smiles when Derek sits up and presses his lips against his. When he’s disappeared under the water and Will’s bringing the boat back to the docks, he thinks his words over. _Boyfriends._ It makes him smile uncontrollably, and he pushes all the uncertainties and doubts and everything he needs to talk to Derek about to the back of his mind. _Tomorrow,_ he promises himself. _Tomorrow._

 

+++++

 

He doesn’t do it tomorrow. It’s still early morning, and Derek is leaning against his chest and lazily trailing one hand in the water, when Will sees a dark head pop out of the water a couple of metres away. He blinks a few times, feeling a heavy sense of déjà vu. When the head keeps moving steadily closer, he nudges Derek’s shoulder,

 

Derek turns his head into Will’s chest and places a small kiss there, murmuring, “Hmmm?”

 

Will feels his stomach do a funny swoop, and it takes him longer than he’ll admit to get his brain back online to point out at the water. “Friend of yours?”

 

Derek opens his eyes and follows Will’s hand, and groans slightly. “Not anymore.” he mutters. He sits up and Will immediately misses his warmth.

 

Derek cups his hands and shouts, “Farah!”

 

For a moment the figure stays motionless, before a girl emerges from the water, grinning. “Well hey baby brother.”

 

Derek sighs. “What are you doing here.”

 

“I just wanted to check up on my bro, is that a crime?” She moves closer, and Will can now see her skin is the same warm shade of brown as Derek’s, but the scales on her forearms and shoulders, as well as her tail, are crystal blue, whereas Derek’s is green. She looks at Will up and down, and he forces himself not to tense up. Derek’s posture is still relaxed, even if his voice is agitated, and his tail is still swishing languidly in the water, so there should be nothing for Will to worry about.

 

Still, he feels like he’s being scrutinised. Derek blows out an annoyed breath. “Farah, stop it.”

 

“What?” she says innocently, her eyes twinkling.

 

Will clears his throat and sticks a hand out to her. “I’m Will.”

 

She looks at his hand, and he realises that she has no idea what a handshake is. “It’s ah…” He fumbles for a bit before eventually withdrawing his hand. Both Derek and Farah are looking at him with amusement now, and he feels himself blush.

 

“I’m assuming that you tried to offer me some human form of politeness, and I wish to reciprocate.” Farah says gravely, but her eyes are still crinkled up into a laugh. She sticks out her hand to Will much in the same fashion as he just did, and doesn’t wait for him to shake before withdrawing it.

 

“Stop teasing him.”

 

She shrugs. “Just gotta make sure that my baby brother is being treated right.”

 

Derek gives her a pleading look. “Jeez, it’s been like a week.” Will watches the fin on Derek’s back make a waving kind of motion, and realises Derek’s embarrassed, and that if his skin was the same colour as Will’s, he’d be crimson red. He grins to himself, filing away this quirk for future reference.

 

When he tunes back into the conversation, he realises that Farah is watching him again, and he offers her what he hopes is a pleasant smile, although he suspects that it looks more like a grimace. A corner of her mouth quirks up, and she turns back to Derek.

 

“Mama won’t be happy.”

 

Will feels Derek stiffen up beside him. “Don’t tell her. Not yet.”

 

Farah eyes her brother, and Will automatically moves closer to him. The movement draws her eye to him instead, and she shakes her head, chuckling.

 

“I gotta go, Derek. Have fun on your date.” She swims backwards for a few metres, still facing the boat, and talks over Derek’s spluttering. “I’ll see you later tonight.” She pauses, floating on the spot in the water. “For the record, I don’t think Mom will approve either.” She grins, and suddenly Will can see all of Derek’s laughter and mischief in her. “But not bad, Derek. Not bad at all.”

 

And with a flick of her tail, she dives into the waves and disappears, leaving both Will and Derek staring at the calm patch of water where she just was. After a minute, Will breaks the silence.

 

“Annoying sisters. I can relate.”

 

This seems to shake Derek out of his reverie. “She can be a real pain in the ass sometimes,” he says, carefully pronouncing the idiom that Will taught him last week, and Will has to bite back a smile. “But without her, I don’t think I’d be so…”

 

“Chill?” Will supplies with a wry smile.

 

Derek turns to him with a shit-eating smile. “William Poindexter, I cannot believe you.”

 

“Fuck off Derek, I know you haven’t got a single chill bone in your body.” He presses his arm against Derek’s, a line of warmth down his side.

 

“She means well.” Derek says, after a minute of comfortable silence. Will pushes away all thoughts of disapproving parents, instead thinking of Matilda at home, and all the things that he would do for her before she even asks, and thinks he understands.

 

“Tell me about her?”

 

Will watches Derek’s eyes light up as he talks about Farah and her work with endangered magical creatures, and her latest trip to Japan for a campaign to save the Bake-Kujira, and he realises that he could never ask Derek to move away from his home, and nor would he ever move away from his home for Derek either, whether there really was some evil sea witch that would trade a voice for legs – or for a tail – or not. And as he smiles and laughs at Derek’s stories of the misadventures he and Farah got up to as children, he wonders how they’re going to manage keeping their own homes while also keeping each other.

 

+++++

 

“Are there any rules?”

 

“Rules?”

 

“Yeah, like rules to being a mermaid.”

 

Derek frowns. “I imagine it’s similar to rules for being a human.”

 

Will laughs. “We don’t have any rules. Not any that apply to every single human anyway. It would be a really different world if we did.”

 

“What about ‘don’t kill unnecessarily’?”

 

“That’s different.” Will argues. “That’s more… your moral code.”

 

“Which is a kind of rule, is it not?”

 

“You’re insufferable, you know that?”

 

“I’ve been told once or twice by a certain someone.” Derek says, smiling. “But really,” he continues, “it’s only that rule that’s universal to mermaids.” He hesitates, before adding, “And the rule to not reveal yourself to a land creature.”

 

“Oh.” Will doesn’t know what to make of that. He pulls away from Derek, and stares out to the sea, where Derek had pointed out his city a few weeks ago. Somewhere in the distance, a seagull caws.

 

“Rules are made up by those in power.” Derek says quietly. “Sometimes those rules are good. Sometimes they’re bad.”

 

Will breathes in slowly, then back out again. “I don’t think that rule is one of the bad ones though.”

 

“Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. It depends, doesn’t it?”

 

Will doesn’t reply, and eventually Derek hooks his chin over Will’s shoulder, leaning his chest on Will’s back. Will absentmindedly reaches a hand behind himself, fumbling for Derek, and settling when their fingers tangle between them.

 

“Wanna know a secret?”

 

“What?” Will closes his eyes, feeling Derek’s warmth seep into his skin.

 

“I didn’t mess with your boat because I was curious. It was because I kept getting distracted trying to look at you without you noticing me.”

 

Will lets the words digest for a moment before he bursts out into laughter. “I should’ve known you weren’t that smooth.”

 

Derek only smiles sheepishly as Will laughs, and for a glorious instant, they’re just two boys enjoying a summer day on a boat. It’s just another day Will gets to spend with his boyfriend, and there’s no separation of worlds, no meddling sisters, no secrets, no limited number of hours together. Will turns his head to meet Derek’s lips, and doesn’t think of anything else.

 

+++++

 

The week before Will leaves for his junior year at Samwell, he tells his parents that some of his friends from high school are meeting up, and that he wouldn’t be home that night. He hasn’t talked to his friends from high school since… well, high school, and he has no plans to now. That morning, when Derek is rambling about his words composition and the new series of odes and ballads he’s writing, Will screws up the courage, and blurts out, “Can you meet me here tonight?”

 

Derek stops mid-sentence, and looks at him suspiciously. “Why? Are we doing something?”

 

“Are mermaids always so full of questions?” Will quips, smiling, and Derek smiles back at him so softly that Will can feel himself blushing.

 

“What time should I be here?”

 

“About ten.”

 

Derek looks blankly at him. “Ten?”

 

“Yeah, 10PM. Is that not… oh right.” Sometimes Will still forgot that he and Derek were worlds apart. Literally. “How do you guys measure time?”

 

Derek points at the shore, and then at the sky. “By the pull of the tide and the cycle of the sun and moon.”

 

“Of course. Why did I expect anything else.” Will mutters as he pulls out his phone to Google the time of moonrise that night. 10:43PM. Perfect. He pockets his phone. “Moonrise it is then.”

 

“Moonrise.” Derek agrees, but Will can already see his attention sliding to Will’s phone in his hands, and Will lets out a dramatic sigh before shifting so that they’re sitting side by side.

 

“Here. Today I’ll show you the wonders of YouTube.”

 

Derek beams at him, and Will’s heart thumps loudly in his chest. He looks down to hide his fluster, and types _trip around the world_ into the search bar. The video loads, and Will says, “I can’t take you to mountains and deserts, so this is the next best thing.”

 

Derek’s expression changes into one of shock. “You remembered.”

 

Will shrugs, not taking his eyes off the screen. He feels a little uncomfortable under Derek’s intense gaze, and nudges him with his elbow to get him to watch the video. After moment, he turns his attention to the phone, and Will lets out an unsteady breath.

 

As Derek watches, mesmerised, Will runs through a mental checklist of everything they’ll need for tonight, and prays for good weather. _And good luck,_ he tacks on the end. Not that he’ll need it. But just in case.

 

+++++

 

It’s a beautifully clear night, and Will steers his boat out onto the water and drops the anchor before rolling up the sleeves of his flannel. It’s warm enough that he thinks they won’t need the blankets.

 

He’s just finished putting the batteries into the lantern he brought when he hears the water splash behind him, and feels the boat wobble a little. He turns around to see Derek in the middle of hoisting himself onboard, and he smiles at him, fiddling around with the lantern to switch it on. When he does, the boat is filled with a soft, golden light, and for a moment Will can’t breathe at the sight of Derek arranging himself in the boat, scales shimmering under the light and skin glowing.

 

“You got me here. What are we doing, O mysterious one?”

 

Will’s gaze snaps up to meet Derek’s, who’s clearly aware that Will was staring at him and is looking back with the same amusement that he looked at Will with on the first day, but tinged with something else, something fonder.

 

“Right! Um.” Will turns to reach into his backpack, and pulls out the books he borrowed from the library. “I know it’s not exactly the same, but here’s some stuff by human words-workers. You can’t take them underwater or anything but I thought you might like them.”

 

Derek reaches forward and takes one of the books, running his hand over the cover. Will holds his breath and watches for his reaction.

 

When it comes, it’s not the one he’s expecting.

 

“I can’t read human tongue.” Derek sounds a little regretful, and a lot wistful.

 

“Oh.” Will wants to bang his head on the side of the boat. Why didn’t he think of that? Of course Derek wouldn’t know how to read English, he’s never experienced it written. Will thinks quickly. “That’s okay. I’ll read to you.”

 

Derek says nothing, but Will can see the smile making its way slowly across his face, as he hands the book back. He wriggles around to rearrange himself so that he’s leaning on Will’s chest. Will opens the book, and turns to the first page.

 

_“On the other side of the world, you pass the moon to me, like a loving cup…”_

 

+++++

 

Will wakes up slowly, and opens his eyes to the warmth of the sunrise on his face. He rubs his eyes and sits up, yawning. He’s alone in the boat, and Will guesses that at some point during the night after he fell asleep, Derek slipped back into the water to make sure his skin didn’t dry out.

 

He smiles, remembering the events of last night. Will had read until his voice was hoarse, and then he’d turned out the light, and watched Derek pointing up at the stars, tracing the constellations with his finger and telling Will the mermaid myths associated with each one. He’d fallen asleep listening to the low cadence of Derek’s voice and the gentle lapping of the waves against the side of the boat.

 

Will’s only been awake a few minutes when Derek’s head pops up next to the boat. Will smiles at him sleepily before taking in the tense way he holds himself in the water, the rigidness of his spine, and the stillness of his tail.

 

“Derek? What’s wrong?”

 

“We need to talk.” Derek says bluntly. “About us. And what comes next.”

 

Will takes a deep breath, shaking off the last of his sleepiness. “Yes.”

 

 _So here it is, the dreaded talk._ he thinks as he puts the blanket aside and crosses his legs. Derek doesn’t seem to want to come out of the water, so Will moves closer to the side of the boat and leans down so that they’re closer to eye level with one another.

 

“I’ve been doing some asking around,” Derek begins, “about whether there’s been anything before like us.” He smiles grimly. “And there has, but nobody will talk about it.”

 

“But?” Will says hopefully. There’s always a but in situations like this, right?

 

“But nothing. Nobody will talk about it.”

 

Obviously not always then. Will has nothing to reply to that, and simply clenches his hands into fists. “I don’t want to break up.” he whispers.

 

Derek swims a little closer to the boat, but still doesn’t make any move to get in. “Me neither.”

 

“Are you sure that there’s no magic down there.” Will tries to lighten the mood, but from the tightening of Derek’s expression, it falls flat.

 

“No. And even if there was, I won’t leave behind my family. I won’t. And I don’t want you to for me either.”

 

Will lets out a breath, nodding. He’d thought as much himself. “It’s only for another two years.” he says quietly. “Once I graduate, I can move back home.”

 

Derek shakes his head. “I don’t want you to base your life around me.” He hesitates, before adding, “And my work might take me away from home too.”

 

Will closes his eyes. It’s true: he never saw himself growing old in this little seaside town, always thought he’d end up in some big city like New York or Seattle. And from the past few weeks with Derek, he can see the restless nature in his palms and tail, and he can’t imagine Derek staying in this quiet bay his whole life either.

 

He opens his eyes. “I wish this summer would last forever.” As soon as the words leave his mouth, he feels foolish, but Derek’s gaze sharpens.

 

“What about the summer?”

 

Will frowns. “What about it?”

 

“What about every summer. Only the summer, just like this one.”

 

Will makes a noise of protest, a thousand flaws in that plan on his tongue already, but Derek beats him to it.

 

“It’s the best we’ve got.” Derek meets Will’s eyes pleadingly, but Will can also see the tinge of challenge in the gaze, the defiance in the tilt of his chin. _This is a fight,_ he realises, _and Derek is fighting for me._

 

 _There has to be another option._ he wants to say. _One that neither of us has thought of in all these weeks, even if we didn’t talk about thinking about it._

 

 _What about all the months when it’s not summer,_ he wants to say. _What about all the months when I can’t even call or text, let alone see or touch you._

 

He doesn’t say any of that. Instead, he says, “The summer solstice.”

 

Derek nods. “For sixty days after the summer solstice.”

 

Will loosens his hands from fists, pressing his palms flat onto the top of his thighs. _This is it,_ he thinks. _This is the best we’ve got._ “Always.”

 

And as Will reaches down to press his lips against Derek’s, he pretends he can’t taste the desperation laced in the kiss.

 

+++++

 

The end of the summer is bittersweet. Will thinks that he spends more time out on the water than he does at his house. He avoids parents’ probing questions, and Matilda’s worried glances. He’s excited to go back to Samwell, for the start of the hockey season, to move into his new room in the Haus, of course, but there are so many worries and fears about Derek at the forefront of his mind that the excitement he felt at the end of his sophomore year seems very far away.

 

The day he’s set to leave for Samwell, he’s packing the last of his boxes into his car, and hugging his mom and promising to call, and telling Matilda to call when she gets to her freshman dorm at UMaine next week, when his dad comes down and stands by the car.

 

“Billy,” he says, and Will tenses. It’s his speech voice, the one he only uses when he’s preparing himself to say something out of his comfort zone. Will’s heard it in the good, the bad, and the ugly, and he wasn’t sure if the chances this time were on his side.

 

“I know something went down this summer, and I’m not asking you to tell me. I just want you to know that we’ll always be here for you, no matter what.” His dad pauses, before adding. “And no matter who with too.”

 

Will’s breath catches in his throat. Sure, his parents have known his sexual orientation for almost a year now, and although they’ve never been antagonistic, they’ve never shown a lot of support either. Will almost wants to laugh, with his current situation, and he wonders if he’s ever going to tell them about Derek.

 

“Thanks Dad.”

 

He claps Will on the shoulder, and tells him, “Drive safe.” before heading back into the house.

 

Will faces the direction of the sea one more time, breathing in the smell of salt and sand, before he gets in his car and drives away without looking back.

 

+++++

 

Junior year is hard.

 

At Thanksgiving, Matilda corners him in her room and makes him tell her what happened, and it all comes spilling out. That night, they camp out on the floor of her room, just like they did when they were kids.

 

He feels a little lighter the next day, and if he notices Matilda shoving all kinds of tasks and things to do at him for the remainder of the week, he doesn’t say anything. It’s a welcome distraction.

 

He doesn’t go down to the docks. He doesn’t go down at Christmas either.

 

At school, he puts his head down and works harder than ever. He plays some of the best hockey he’s ever played in his life, goes to the Haus kitchen when he’s frustrated to knead some dough for Bitty, who thankfully doesn’t ask. Laughs and plays beer pong at kegsters, but swiftly dodges Ollie and Wicks’ attempts to set him up. They get knocked out in the first round of the Frozen Four, and although it’s gut-wrenching to come so close again, Will’s hopeful for his senior year. Chowder gets nominated captain, to no one’s surprise, with himself and Whiskey as alternates for when Chowder’s in the goal on ice. At the last kegster of the year, surrounded by all the alumni as well as current members of the Samwell Men’s Hockey team and with summer just around the corner, Will feels something akin to peace.

 

Will arrives back home on June 15th, and calls his uncle to let him know that he’ll be in to lend a hand on the docks the following week. He then frets for the next six days, hopelessly restless, until Matilda comes home on the evening of the second day and forces Will into something of a routine of exercise, sleep, food, and going on roadtrips and outings with her.

 

On June 21st, Will takes the boat out, fumbling as he unties and ties the knots, even though he’s been handling ropes since before he could walk. When he reaches the spot he hasn’t been at for almost a year, he drops the anchor, and waits.

 

And like a prayer, Derek’s there.

 

Will’s leaning forward over the edge of the boat as soon as he sees the familiar dark shape, reaching towards him. He doesn’t realise how far he’s leant until the boat sways dangerously to the side, and he falls straight out into the water.

 

First there’s the shock of the cold water, even under the hot summer sun, then there’s a warmth around him, and he breaks the surface of the waves, gasping for air, to meet Derek’s eyes.

 

He looks a little older, a little more tired, but it’s still the same green eyes, the same crinkle of his smile, and he smirks at Will with all the cocky arrogance and brightness he first fell in love with, and says:

 

“You just literally fell for me.”

 

Will stares at him, and bursts into laughter, partly out of helplessness at the joke, partly out of incredulousness that Derek knows that human idiom, but mostly just out of sheer happiness that he’s in Derek’s arms again. And out of this happiness he presses his hands to Derek’s cheeks and kisses him hard.

 

Derek kisses him back just as hard, teeth clacking against each other, and soon they’re both smiling too hard to kiss properly. Will pulls back and pushes his wet hair off his forehead before pressing his nose into Derek’s shoulder, and breathing in the clean scent of the sea. Quite suddenly, he knows that everything will be just fine. He has his senior year ahead of him, then after that, who knows. They have the summer ahead of them, and infinite summers to come.

 

He knows they’ll be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> the video that Will shows Derek is [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcmrbNRK-jY).
> 
> the poem that Will reads Derek is 'World' by Carol Ann Duffy.
> 
> feedback is always appreciated! and come say hi on [tumblr](http://andfollowthesun.tumblr.com/) <3


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